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<title>but i keep my hands 'til you come into the water by sapphfics</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959171">but i keep my hands 'til you come into the water</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics'>sapphfics</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bodyswap, Dark, Drabble, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Post-Canon, wrote this after a 14 hr shift and it shows</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:22:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959171</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Instantly, Dani knows something is wrong. Call it a sixth sense, call it au pair’s intuition, call it paranoia, but Dani knows that from where she lies in the lake she should not be able to see the sun.</p><p>Or: the bodyswap/fix-it fic no one asked for</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dani Clayton/Jamie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>212</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>but i keep my hands 'til you come into the water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>title is from come into the water by mitski</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ghost stories can end with death, but horror stories never truly end. Any good storyteller knows you have the leave the audience with a foreboding sense of dread, a sense that there are still tales left to be told. It is what brings the eager listeners back around the campfire as the full moon casts the only light above them.</p><p>Dani has never been much of a storyteller, that was more Jamie. In the lake, she tells herself stories to ensure she remembers, touches her face to feel it is still there. </p><p>She clings to her ever fleeting images of Jamie’s laugh, Hannah’s endless heroism, Owen’s terrible puns. She knows that these too will fade in time; Viola has told her so, and Viola is a lot of things but she is not a liar. She just isn’t ready to accept it yet, the same way Jamie hasn’t accepted the choice Dani made.</p><p>Though, was it really a choice? Dani couldn’t let Flora die. She wouldn’t. She hasn’t. Flora is alive and well and in love, Miles has begun visiting bird sanctuaries, and Henry has been sober for three years. Or has it been thirteen years? Time is endless and untraceable submerged in the water. </p><p>Instantly, Dani knows something is wrong. Call it a sixth sense, call it au pair’s intuition, call it paranoia, but Dani knows that from where she lies in the lake she should not be able to see the sun. Nor should she be able to lie on her stomach, head into a pillow, her hair a mess. In the lake, all she can do is lie within the endless pool and watch the images on surface. It is true that, occasionally, she will walk, but no one lives in Bly anymore so there is not much purpose to her wanderings. Perhaps she is hoping to see Hannah, or Owen, or Rebecca, or even Peter Quint just so she can knock his teeth in. </p><p>At first, Dani assumes she’s been tucked away in a memory again. But she can’t be; she has no memory of Jamie waking up alone as she was always with her. </p><p>Dani has never possessed anyone before; Dani is not Viola, she is not cruel. Possession, she knows, can become addictive. There’s a reason why Peter kept preying on Miles; children with less formed personalities are easier to take over. Dani doesn’t like that she knows this, but rules that come with being dead are things she cannot forget and someday she understands that the rules will overtake all her memories. Dani doesn’t like to consider this fact, so she ignores it. </p><p>These are not her hands. Dani would know Jamie’s hands anywhere and everywhere. Dani looks in the mirror and screams because she doesn’t see Eddie’s blank eyes; she sees herself in her beloved’s body. </p><p>Dani doesn’t question if she has really lost her mind or not. There is no room for that, not after all she has seen. She covers the floor length mirror with one of her old towels. Old habits die hard. </p><p>There’s a note on the bedside table.</p><p>
  <i>Dani,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Say all the goodbyes you couldn’t. I will be waiting for you in the lake at midnight. Step in time, Poppins. </i>
</p><p><i>With all my love,</i><br/>
<i>Jamie</i> </p><p>-:-</p><p>The spell will only work for a day. Jamie knows this. She’s been to every crystal shop and every aspiring witch twenty miles out of Bly; she knows this will not last.</p><p>Jamie never learnt how to swim. It isn’t something she ever said to Dani. Never thought to mention it. Just another piece of a shattered childhood. She realises, as she stands at the edge of Bly Manor lake, that she doesn’t care. </p><p>The water fills her lungs and she is burning but soon enough she puts Dani’s hands through Dani’s hair and it is just as soft and smooth as she remembers it. Or maybe that is just the lake placating her. She doesn’t care.</p><p>All that matters is that she has given Dani one more day to bask in the sun before going back. </p><p>When Dani wades into the lake to force Jamie back into her own body, Jamie savours the touch of Dani’s hand — her hand, really, but it isn’t when Dani is using it — and tries to stay as long as possible.</p><p>It is the last time Jamie will feel her lover’s hand on her again until she dies with her grey hair just visible through the crack in her hotel room door.  She does not know this, of course.</p><p>Dani doesn’t hurt her. Dani hasn’t ever hurt anyone. Dani blames herself too much. Jamie wants to take her place, be the Atlas and place the world and this lake under her shoulders, but Dani won’t even question it.</p><p>Jamie finds a note beneath a growing moon flower someone put beside her bed. It’s written on a damp post it note in Dani’s neat script. </p><p>
  <i>Jamie,</i>
</p><p><i>You can tell my story. I want others to know what you did. You helped save us all. I adore you. Be safe. Be happy. Be free of Bly. Leave the door open a crack for me, and I will always be with you.</i> </p><p><i>All my love,</i><br/>
<i>Dani</i></p><p>Jamie hears a faint song in her mind, sometimes, singing about weeping willows. She checks the mirror compulsively. She never sleeps with the door open. She grows older. She awakens, she walks, she sleeps. She endures. </p><p>Dani will come home to her. Jamie is a just biding her time. </p><p>When she gets the wedding invitation, Jamie decides she will take a moon flower as a wedding gift and see fit to give the new bride and groom a tale they shall not forget. </p><p>The truth of it all is that Jamie will not let Dani be forgotten no matter how much time passes, how many memories fade. </p><p>When the time comes, Jamie will tell Dani all of this. They will see each other again. They have to. </p><p>-:-</p><p>After the reception, Jamie feels Dani’s soft hand on her shoulder, and smiles.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if u read this far u deserve a medal</p><p>follow me on twitter @ daniclaytxn or tumblr @ adaineabernat if u feel so inclined, let’s be friends &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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